Alan Dzagoev scored twice in the 4-1 triumph in their Group A opener but little maestro Andrei Arshavin took many of the plaudits for threading the sort of cute little passes which give nightmares to cumbersome defenders.
Odds were quickly slashed on Dick Advocaat's men winning the tournament but with a long way to go and a potentially tough quarter-final against the Germans, Dutch or Portuguese, they will have to keep this form going for a few weeks yet.
"The Czechs left some space which made us dangerous," Advocaat, a Dutchman schooled in the pass and move groove, told reporters.
"For the first game I am happy about it. Andrei played a very good game. He worked very hard. He was very important for the team the way he can play."
"It is most important we won the first game. At the end is when you lift the trophy, not now," he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the rest of Group A - where Poland drew 1-1 with Greece earlier - rather than the final in Kiev on July 1.
It got worse for Michal Bilek's men as soon waves of Russians poured forward with the ball almost always played to feet along the slick pitch coated with a shower of rain.
Vaclav Pilar's 52nd-minute goal which made it 2-1 was well worked and briefly made a game of it.
The craft and the guile was still present in the move for the third but Dzagoev's thumping 79th-minute finish was a sign that Russia can also do power.
Substitute striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, who could find himself in the starting line-up for Russia's next match against Poland in Warsaw on June 12 given Kerzhakov's wastefulness, then bamboozled the defence and buried his fierce shot into the net three minutes later for the fourth.
"We scored the goal but we were losing the ball again and our opponents punished us for this," said Bilek.
